At Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards ceremony, Kia’s “One to Watch” gave a performance befitting the label.
Singer-songwriter, who performed under that artist to watch spotlight, delivered with an enthralling rendition of her breakthrough hit “Nobody Love.”
Similar in conception to her performance at the 2015 Radio Disney Music Awards, the acoustic performance was considerably more engaging at Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards.
And despite airing as part of a much more stacked bill, it may have been the performance of the night.
By the time the west coast edition of the broadcast ended, “Tori Kelly” was the awards ceremony’s third-highest-trending topic on Twitter. Only the main #BBMAs hashtag and #EpicIsntWorthIt, which is a reference to Epic’s “Worth It” act Fifth Harmony not performing as advertised, appeared higher on the worldwide trend list.
Celebrities like John Legend and Ed Sheeran also issued lofty compliments to the singer-songwriter.
“Tori Kelly with the vocal performance of the night,” wrote Legend, who himself as a performer on the show.
Sheeran, who also performed, wrote, “For me @ToriKelly killed it tonight.” It was the only performance he directly praised.
A highlight follows (full video to be posted shortly):